Our First Huge Food Prep With Bulk Cooking

This weekend was a very busy one for us and the main reason for this is that we decided to do a huge batch of bulk cooking. In the past, we have prepared a few days worth of meats or soups at one time, but we’ve never done anything on this scale.

While I was at work on Friday night, my wife got started making most of the meats, a huge pot of rice, and a bunch of baked potatoes (russet and sweet). Here is what things looked like when I first got home:

We then had to make the fish, meatloaf, and vegetables…

Then we began to weigh & measure all of the meats and sides to make our various meals. I handled the majority of this part of the preparation, as my wife went to the store to purchase more glass containers. Here are a few pics that I took of the individual meals at the various stages:

We actually had to make a 2nd batch of mixed vegetables, and make some mashed potatoes to go along with everything. The great thing about preparing all of our meals this way is that we can easily plan our calories and macro-nutrient totals for each day for the next week.

We know exactly how many calories and how much fat, protein, fiber, and carbohydrates are in each dish!!!

We actually didn’t finish up until Saturday, but here is the finished product!

Of course, I also made a bulk cooking video showing everything that we made (at least 1 representative dish for each meal type):

Reader Questions:

Have you ever did a bulk cooking session to prepare your meals ahead of time?

My wife precooks meals sometimes, although not quite on the scale that you did. Our freezer is already overflowing with past precooked meals. She made most of them for our son to take to school. Trouble is, he often does not want what she has prepared, and ends up making things like a microwave cheese quesadilla for lunch. As long as I can get at the ice cream, I am OK with a full freezer.

We would mainly do soups and chili, but nothing on this scale until now. That’s one of the bad things with pre-cooked meals, you may not want it when it’s time to eat it. I’m laughing at your comment about the ice cream. 🙂

WOW! I typically cook a week’s worth of meals (especially during the winter!) Summer is a little more challenging as I eat a lot of fresh veggies (salads and cold soups). It is so much easier to prep during the winter because I eat a lot of hearty soups. I’ve switched to eating Vegan Before 6:00 p.m. and am also trying to eat a little more during the day. My evening meal is typically a little lighter-think steamed veggies and hummus/chicken/steak/lamb. Just depends. You two kicked some meal prepping bootie! Good job.

Do you document your meal prep? This was our first huge one and I’m sure we could be much more efficient in the future. It sounds like you have a solid plan in place regarding your eating. Will you be at the conference this year?

I only document meals that look PHENOMENAL!! I actually will have some pictures on my site tomorrow 🙂 But, in general I have a large number of recipes that I cycle through. Then, I look for new recipes. Yes! I will be at the Conference St. Louis twice in one year. Am hoping it’s in Portland next year…or Austin.

I always want to do a big cooking day, but I never seem to find the time. The other hard part is, bf doesn’t eat most of what I cook and I don’t eat most of what he cooks, so if I did a freezer meal thing I’d have to make “his meals” and “my meals” which would probably be more labor and time intensive then it’s worth. I’m super impressed with your ambition though!

We have been wanting to do this for almost 3 years! We finally broke down and just made it happen. If going this far (weighing, measuring, and assembling all meals) is too much because of your separate tastes, you can always start by just cooking all the meats at once and then just making sides as you need them.